“I feel great about the change,” said Mr. Muniz, now a salesman at a police goods store. “The neighborhood was hot during the crack era. It was a terrible time. You see it now, the Bronx has changed. I’m amazed at how it looks now.” via Bronx Park South Journal – A Desolate Princess of…

“My mission is to frame this health care debate in terms of the fiscal ruin of this country,” said the 61-year-old Mr. Coburn, who recently railed on the Senate floor that the federal debt was “waterboarding” his five grandchildren. “I have instructed my staff to clear my schedule for every minute that bill is on…

A strike has been authorized by San Francisco hotel workers. More than 9000 hotel workers are represented by UNITE-Here local 2. Ninety-two point three percent of those workers voted in favor of strike authorization at 31 upscale hotels. According to the union the hotels are seeking to increase workloads by cutting shifts and combining jobs.…

A rumor is making the rounds that the White House and Senator Reid are pursuing different strategies on the public option. Those rumors are absolutely false. In his September 9th address to Congress, President Obama made clear that he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding…

Many of the world’s biggest banks — and biggest recipients of government bailouts — have some of the largest collections of art. Some of the works, including abstract pieces and old masters, are hanging in hallways or boardrooms. But much of it is packed away in storage. The art owned by financial institutions should get…

Even graduates of bartending schools have some sort of employment on the horizon. But that just goes to show you the sheer genius of the literary-industrial complex. The available jobs after graduation are nothing more than a mirage, and even though everyone knows it, people still fork over millions of dollars. via Ripping Off Writers…

One surprising smackdown occurred on Oct. 9 in federal bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York. Ruling that a lender, PHH Mortgage, hadn’t proved its claim to a delinquent borrower’s home in White Plains, Judge Robert D. Drain wiped out a $461,263 mortgage debt on the property. That’s right: the mortgage debt disappeared,…

The animals never know the feel of grass, mud or sunshine, and hardly the touch of man, in their six months of life. But they are also free of many of the infections that slow the growth and occasionally end the lives of their outdoor cousins. “We’re producing the most efficient animal, one that is…

CRUDE: A Joe Berlinger Film. Today I saw CRUDE and it is everything I thought it would be and everything it needs to be as a film. At the end of the film I was troubled by the fact these people have still not received justice from the legal system in Ecuador as the case against Chevron…